Where to buy spindle

[HipoPapi]

Hi Jazz,

Thanks for the quick reply.
That is a great suggestion as you are absolutely right that I dont need better resolution than 0.01. In fact I dont need better resolution than 0.5. I know it sounds ridiculous when I see what people are aiming for in this forum but realistically everything I do melts.
Ice blocks come in standard sizes of 1000 x 500 x 250 and they are not perfect so essentially here I need precision is the edges to make them match each other to glue them together with water. The cnc would do just the sides the top and bottom will be done on a band saw.

Thanks again I will definitely consider the 2020 screws.

Vass

[HipoPapi]

Silyavsky thanks for the hearts :) feeling much better now.

You and Eddy are absolutely right in your assumption. The design has changed since than. Instead of the 50x100 pieces I have used 100x100 ones all round and now the vertical bit is all the way to the back.Originally I have brought it forward to leave access to the HIWIN blocks but with the 100x100 profile it is no longer necessary.
It looks like this at the moment:


I have tried to design it in a way to have the blocks fixed and the rail moving, but the gentry become a lot taller.
The reason for that is the fact that the lowest position of the spindle is different from what you have seen.
You can see it better in the following picture.


Thanks again Silyavsky and Eddy.

[JAZZCNC]

Ice blocks come in standard sizes of 1000 x 500 x 250 and they are not perfect so essentially here I need precision is the edges to make them match each other to glue them together with water. The cnc would do just the sides the top and bottom will be done on a band saw.

So what you need is a surface planner not a CNC router.? Have you considered building a four sided planer on linear axis.?

This would be very easy to build and wouldn't need expensive spindles, tools, or controller and drives, ballscrews etc.

Because you know the linear movement you can just use programable drives that don't even need a PC. Use planner blocks and blades with normal motors for the cutting heads. For linear movement the simple chain drive could be used as you don't need precision just to move a set distance.

If you wanted to automate the process so each blade moves in sequence then a simple arduino could do this.

Just a thought.??

[HipoPapi]

Hi Jazz,

That is an interesting thought, but I intend the use the capabilities of the cnc as well actually quite a bit including 3d roughing and as mentioned earlier would like to add a 4th axes later if this works out alright.

Here are a couple of pictures of similar machines that I have used as reference. The one on the picture is a rack and pinion system and has been working for the past 9 years generally for about 6 hours a day. And it has a surprising setup that blew my mind and in a way made me confident in my design. It has only three HIWIN blocks on the y and also just three on the z. On the Y there are 2 on the front and one on the top and on the z two on one side and one on the other :)

I do a lot of logos in ice which would be done with the cnc. At the moment I do them by hand and it was ok until now, but now that I know that I am designing a cnc I cant stop thinking about how easy it would be :)


Thanks again for the great advice.

Cheers,
Vass

[JAZZCNC]

Ahh ok well you do need CNC then. . Lol

Something I was going to suggest regards the design was moving the top rail onto top of gantry beam and using the bearing plate to support the rear plate due to it's height and I see they have done this on this machine. This would be a good design change and if you notice they have triangle plates supporting the tall back plate which will resonate while cutting. Now surface finish won't be an issue for you but anything that resonates for long enough is going to have a negative affect on components etc so reducing it doesn't hurt.

[HipoPapi]

I will definitely consider the triangle plates as my z is higher hence I have the two beams. Mine is higher because I dont want the removable front plate to preposition the spindle all the time when I want to work an a thinner sheet of ice.
I have been thinking of placing one of the rails on the top, but It seems to me that it would be a lot harder to get them parallel, but steel I think that is the right way to go and will do a redesign on that.
Just to give you an idea of what they have got away with on the machine pictured earlier the gantry beam is a 150 x 110 aluminum box section, held by 100 x 50 x 3 aluminum box sections (the vertical bits and bottom bits) and the side plates and z axes plates are 13mm aluminum plates. This hopefully gives you a better idea of what forces are needed for Ice.

Thanks again

[JAZZCNC]

This hopefully gives you a better idea of what forces are needed for Ice

To be honest I would imagine the forces are a bit less than cutting soft woods so your design is well upto the job.
Personally given your relatively light needs then I would use HD Aluminium profile for the gantry beams and make life very easy for your self. The profile makes fitting rails very easy and accurate, if combined with Aluminium plate for the gantry sides that is manipulated in a certain way then it's very accurate and strong.
Steel is great when mass strength is needed but there is alot of work involved in building with it and getting accurecy. The combination of steel for the base for cost saving and strength but with the ease of building an accurate but still strong gantry with profile/plate is the route I would be taking.

[Boyan Silyavski]

Hi Vass, what servos you are looking at? You said 750w and 400w but what exactly ? The BOB then? Do you have updated drawings yet?